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Durham's Rant: Why £35m for Carroll is a bargain

I’ve heard some stupid stuff said about Andy Carroll’s move this week.

One talkSPORT producer who came up to me saying Michael Chopra and Peter Whittingham scored more goals than Carroll did last season. So what’s the conclusion? Liverpool should have paid £40m for Chopra? Nonsense.

Only a football dunce would measure a striker’s value solely by goals. No, it’s pretty obvious that Carroll has an all round game – he’s hard-working, quicker than you think, great in the air, great movement off the ball, direct on the ball, defenders hate him, and then you add the goals on top and it starts to make the comparisons with Chopra look a bit embarrassing.

Then there are those who are comparing Carroll with David Villa. How can Villa be worth less than Carroll? I’ve heard Mike Parry and Stan Collymore ask this question and conclude that football is mad and that £35m for Carroll is wrong. Well Valencia were on the brink of bankruptcy and needed the money. That’s why they sold Villa, and why they only got £34.2m for him. He could pick and choose where he went and he wanted to go to Barcelona. If last summer Liverpool had offered more than Barca for Villa, he would still have gone to Barca.

The other thing is that Liverpool have sold Torres (26, 27 in March) for £50m, and brought in Suarez (24) and Carroll (22) with a net outlay of around £7-8m. These two new strikers could lead the Liverpool line for seven to eight years. It’s fantastic business for Liverpool. They’ve lost a striker who wasn’t doing it for them, and gained 2 strikers who might not work out, but all the evidence suggest they probably will.

People are saying Carroll has done nothing. Well how long do you need to judge Andy Carroll? Half a season is enough for me. Does he have to do it for years and years? He clearly has something very special that not many strikers have got. Only the Moose can’t see that.

Dalglish signed Alan Shearer in 1992 and he led Blackburn to the title. Shearer had had 3 seasons in Southampton’s first team. In 89-90 Shearer scored three goals in 26 games. In 90-91 it was four in 36. In 91-92 it was 13 in 41. But the British transfer record was smashed for Shearer when he signed for Blackburn at exactly the same age Carroll is signing for Liverpool. By the time he moved Shearer had appeared three times for England, Carroll so far once. In real terms it’s a ridiculous figure, but in football terms Dalglish knows exactly what he’s doing. He wouldn’t waste Liverpool’s money, and he had the chance to back out when Newcastle turned down £30m. He matched Newcastle’s valuation because he knows he’s signing the real deal.

Liverpool fans should trust Kenny, and those who think it’s crazy money should go and watch Michael Chopra and then tell me if they’d pay £35million for him.